


Fairy Tale Ending (The Middle Is The End)

by pipisafoat



Category: In Plain Sight
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-28
Updated: 2011-05-28
Packaged: 2017-10-19 21:05:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/205202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pipisafoat/pseuds/pipisafoat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"What did you expect, Marshall, a happy, fluffy, fairy-tale ending? Welcome to life. It doesn't always work out like that."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fairy Tale Ending (The Middle Is The End)

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Fairy Tale Ending (The Beginning Is The End)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/205237) by [pipisafoat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pipisafoat/pseuds/pipisafoat). 



"Where have you been?"

Marshall held up the bag in his hand - Liu Chinese Fast Food. "Stopped for dinner on my way home. You know, Mary, one of these days I'll start thinking you don't trust me." The smile took long enough to appear to make it clear that this might be that day.

She flinched. "Dammit, it's not ... I don't..."

"I know." He handed her a pair of chopsticks and sat down at the table. "You trust me with your life. I'm, like, your only friend. It's not that you don't trust me."

"Somehow I think you saying all my lines can't be good."

Marshall sighed. "It's exactly that you don't trust me. Sure, you can put your life in my hands, your safety, but after all these years, you still don't trust me with your heart. No-" he held up a hand. "Let me finish while I still can."

Mary leaned her chair back on two legs and nodded, chewing almost imperceptibly on her bottom lip.

"You've trusted me almost from the beginning to have your back on the job. I get that. Once I proved that I like my job and it occurred to you that a dead partner might cause me to lose said job I like, that trust was a done deal. But then it took you years to trust me as a friend. And now ... it's been years like this, and you still don't trust me. Checking on a witness? Must be meeting a secret mistress. Getting takeout? I don't know what you think, Mary. Am I banging the owners? The married couple owners?"

"For fuck's sake, I don't think--"

"You never think. And that's almost good." He took a deep breath, stared at the chopsticks in his hand. "As long as I never know if you trust me rationally, it makes this part a whole lot easier. Rationally, you can and you should. But if you did, you'd just cover up all this irrational distrust that lives in your heart, and I'd rather have that out in the open." He fiddled with the chopsticks for a moment in silence, then set them down gently. "At least you're honest about it."

He finally met her eyes, and she swallowed. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying ... It's ... I'm saying ... I don't think I can do this." He opened the lo mein and stabbed his chopsticks in half-heartedly.

"Don't think you can do this as in this conversation is over and we're okay, or the conversation is postponed, or...."

Marshall sighed. "I know you."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I know you won't do the one thing that could help you. That could fix this."

She stared hard at him. "This?"

He shook his head, wouldn't look up. "Us."

"How can you say that." Her chopsticks hit the table near him with a clatter, her chair crashing to the floor a moment later. "Do you really think I just don't care what you do? Do you think you can walk out of here and I won't do something about it?"

"Something," he answered, "but not the right thing."

"Yeah? Well, what's the right thing?"

"Oh God," he whispered to himself. "Mary, you still compare everyone to your father. Nobody can measure up because you have this wonderful ideal of what he could have been if he'd stayed, and nobody can be trusted to give you any sort of wonderful for long because if your perfect father didn't stay, nobody will. And until you can do something about the way you see that...."

He felt fingers on his chin, turning his face to look at her, perched on the edge of the table beside him. Her thumb brushed at the corner of his eye, hesitating at the moisture there. "Therapy or you leave?"

"It's not an ultimatum."

"What happened to you love me just the way I am?"

"I still love you. I'll always love you. This isn't good for either of us right now...."

Mary nodded. "Okay."

"Okay what?" His thoughts raced through every psychologist he knew, ready to call before she changed her mind.

"Okay, I'll help you pack." She let go of his face, stood, returned to her dinner. "I hope you want one last hurrah tonight. Not fair to walk away without delivering on your promise."

"Mary..."

She didn't even look up to answer. "What did you expect, Marshall, a happy, fluffy, fairy-tale ending? Welcome to life. It doesn't always work out like that."

He fumbled with keys, left the lo mein on the table, and paused at the door. "I'll come by another day for my stuff, then."

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Fairy Tale Ending (The Beginning Is The End)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/205237) by [pipisafoat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pipisafoat/pseuds/pipisafoat)




End file.
